Wii wins in US during February

Nintendo's Wii outsold both the Xbox 360 and the Sony PlayStation 3 in the US during February, the latest sales stats coming out of North America shows.

According to market watcher NPD, some 335,000 Wiis were sold in the US in February. Microsoft sold 228,000 Xbox 360s and Sony 127,000 PS3s. Nintendo was just 20,000 units short of outselling both its rivals put together.

NPD's tally of cumulative console sales, cited by Reuters, puts the much older Xbox 360 in the lead, as you'd expect. Americans have bought around 5m 360s, to 1.86m Wiis and 1.1m PS3s. The Microsoft console's launch lead over the other two consoles explains why Xbox 360 owners possess, on average, 5.4 games to Wii owners' 2.8 and PS3 owners' 2.3.

The Wii's success isn't hard to fathom: it's cheaper than its rivals and pitched at a broader range of potential buyers. The PS3, by contrast, is expensive and provides a more limited array of games.